Cooking Session & Cocktail Class at Laval Restaurant-Lounge

With stunning views of the greens of Ghala Valley Golf Club, Laval makes for a stylish little number, accompanied with dark wood floors and striking floor to ceiling windows. The restaurant rings with a comfortable and contemporary casualness and has a menu that lists many temptations.

The restaurant has indoor as well as outdoor seating which is perfect for winters. I mean just look at the pictures, how beautiful is this! You have to catch the sunset here, it is a spectacular view. There’s also a terrace on the first floor with lounge seats where you can sit comfortably, smoke sheesha and simply chill.

Oh yes they have just started serving sheeshas this month!

Laval also hosts some great parties on weekends bringing in international DJs and live music. The venue is perfect for corporate events, private gatherings and probably even a wedding! The décor has been given so much thought to award Laval with a flawless atmosphere.

The cuisine here is mainly international fusion with flavours from Oman, Morocco, Asia, Europe and even Latin America.

Daley and I were invited for some experimental brunching to Laval on a bright sunny Friday afternoon (before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan). Experimental brunching? Yeah this was new to me. Little surprises waiting for me ;)

Mr. Bader Al Lawati, Socia Media Consultant & Official Photographer for Laval and his gorgeous wife, Anna who also happens to handle the events at Laval gave us great company for the afternoon. We spoke about my recent trip to Barcelona and the amazing paellas I got to devour on there. Not long after, Bader announced my first surprise – I was going to learn how to make paella from the head chef Omer Al Rhoul! This was definitely a surprise. Chef Omer comes with an impressive CV, having won the Top Chef Arab World Season One.

Laval has a big neat kitchen and Chef Omer quickly donned me in cooking gear – gloves, head wrap apron ta ta ta. The ingredients were neatly laid out and Chef explained me about the different types of paella. We were making the seafood one.

Chef Omer and Me

I could see the ingredients from the distance – washed, chopped and spread out beautifully on the counter. This paella recipe called for the use of some spices and paprika with a punchy kick.

Traditionally, paella is cooked over an open fire using fresh orange wood, which lends the dish a wonderful smokiness but restaurants don’t allow that, so the paprika supplies the smokiness.

Paella means “frying pan” in Spanish and a medium sized flat pan was set up for me in kitchen station. Pouring virgin olive oil into the pan, first I stir fried the vegetables and then the mussels, calamari and prawns until they were nicely browned. Chef Omar instructed me to push all of the ingredients to the sides so they he could pour in the broth for the rice.

Lots of paprika!

The paella was ready in about 5-7 minutes and then we worked on its presentation before popping it into the oven.

Working on the presentation

Picture with the team!

When that was done, Bader announced that I was ready for surprise number two. I was loving every moment of this! We were taken to the bar and a smiling face of Mr. Richard Ifurung greeted me from behind it. WE WERE GONNA LEARN HOW TO MAKE MOCKTAILS! OMG YAYYY. A special cocktail class by the Bar Manager!

Yayy. Cocktail time.

Everything was set up with what we’d need to make our cocktails – glasses, shakers, water filter jug, muddler, shot measures, ice, juices, syrups, herbs and spices. We couldn’t wait to get shaking a few cocktails up!

The first cocktail we made was Pina Colada, one of my favourite drinks. Richard is such a friendly person; he showed us cool flaring tricks, the ones we could not even attempt. He taught Daley how to make a classic Pina Colada and a contemporary version for me.

Pina Colada

Next we learnt two types of Mojito – Classic and Cuban, which was quite easy. This was such a fun sesh! And our drinks tasted amazing! We did a pretty good job for beginners.

The muddling

Mojito

So the cocktails were ready and so was our paella. It looked marvelous and the aroma was mouth watering. The paella tasted exceptionally good; flavours blended with the rice beautifully.

Paella by Chef Priyanka!

Savoring the intense flavors of the dish, I realized that this was the best blogger episode I had ever experienced. Truly exhilarating. I owe it all to Bader, Anna and the staff at Laval who treated us with such delight.

After every bit of the paella was polished off, we had some amazing desserts to devour on!

Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Ice CreamBaked Alaska

The Chocolate Chip Cookie with vanilla ice cream was wonderfully moist and delish! The Baked Alaska was moreish and its gorgeous presentation heightened the enjoyment of it.

Laval is a sleek well tuned affair with excellent ambience, food and service. It is very much about the lounge experience and really hard to pass up as the kind of place you want to show off to your friends.